Jessie Eisenberg studied magic for Now You See Me

Jessie Eisenberg studied magic for his role as an illusionist is 'Now You See Me' in order to make the part more believable.

Jessie Eisenberg studied magic for 'Now You See Me'.

The 29-year-old actor plays a member of a team of illusionists who pull off bank heists during their performances and in order to make the role believable, Eisenberg contributed with his own tricks after learning how to pull off simple optical illusions.

He told The Los Angeles Daily News: ''I learned a few things... I can do card and coin tricks now. I can do small parts of the movie's bigger tricks.

''You first see me on the street in Chicago. I get a girl to choose a card then toss the deck up in the air, and that card appears in lights on a tower behind me.

''I can make someone focus on the one card in a deck that I want them to see. But I don't know how to wire a skyscraper.''

Eisenberg - whose co-stars in Louis Leterrier's film include Isla Fisher, Morgan Freeman and Mark Ruffalo - related to the role even more after growing up with his mother working as a party clown, but never had the opportunity to watch her in action as she refused to perform at her own children's birthdays.

He added: ''My mother didn't do magic. She had a list of things she didn't do because they scared some kids; big floppy shoes, I'm not sure what all. She didn't do magic because while some people like it, not knowing how something is done can alienate others.

''She traded off our birthdays with a kids party magician, though. My mother would perform at his children's parties and he'd perform at ours, because her doing that for my birthday would just have been weird.''

'Now You See Me' is out in the UK tomorrow (31.05.13) and the US on Monday (03.06.13).